Speech upon the opening of the exhibition by Mathias Grilj

BAZAR D’AK

world – stories a-way – painted

BAZAR D’AK – Bazaar of the Arbeiterkammer – this is what Franz Konrad calls the exhibition he is presenting here today. The oriental bazaar stands for a whirring mass of color and aroma, for milling crowds and varied voices and sounds, for a place of meeting and exchange. It is as chock-full, bustling and shrill as life itself and thus both fascinating and mysterious.

A single glance at the works of Franz Konrad shows that he could have hardly chosen a better title. At the bazaar we can watch craftsmen performing their jobs and in this respect BAZAR D’AK fits perfectly into the Arbeiterkammer’s concept. Under the motto “Art in the works” it places emphasis on the conception, growth and development of artworks.

Here an episode … last year I visited Franz Konrad in his atelier – the exhibition was planned for this January but since something always seems to come up, this time it was a burst water pipe. The artist – he was sitting like a craftsman on a stool in the middle of a huge picture – said that he had to hurry up and complete a few pictures. He was surprised but also relieved when I said, “Please don’t, just show them as they are now.” At the bazaar one also meets storytellers with their abundant trove of tales and myths, wise men with rich imaginations, wit and phenomenal memories.

Konrad’s almost psychedelic pictures also tell stories – and he himself can add a further story to each and every detail. The information seems to pour forth, leading from one thing to the next without a pause. Whether he tells about his meeting with the stove-fitter regarding the optimal air draught in a tile stove. Or how he got the idea for “art gymnastics” – a picture as instructions for body and soul, art against depression and burn-out. Or about the Japanese Kobe cattle that are stroked during breeding in order to make them happy. With a smile and shake of the head he adds: “Then a cubic centimeter of their meat costs 15 euros. And there are people willing to pay for it!”

Franz Konrad’s humor is based on reality just as it is absurd, abysmal and naïve - naïve in the true sense of the word, meaning “basic, natural, inherent.” I was reminded, while watching him in his atelier in the midst of all his paintings, so full of curiosity, enthusiasm and creativity, of a sentence by Hölderlein: “Learn in a lifetime about art, in art learn about life. If you see one correctly, then you see the other one too.” Formally, Konrad’s pictures remind us of comics where image and writing form a symbiosis, or like the art of the Aztecs. Or like medieval woodcuts where various episodes of a story are presented in confusing and vigorous disorder in a single picture. Where there is no “one after the other” but instead an “all at once.” And with this “all at once” Konrad’s pictures seem to reflect on today’s medial world with its tsunami of information, while then adding a sarcastic comment.

In one respect, however, the artist is completely behind the times: Konrad has a very old-fashioned quality – he is patient. He gives himself and his pictures time, he lets them grow themselves and watches this process as observant and even humble servant. The results often surprise and delight him. This reminds me of the lapidary comment by Gottfried Benn who said that a poem was already finished before it was written. It only had to be found by the writer. Or Picasso who said, “I don’t search, I find.”

Konrad’s picture-stories deal with life and experience, with the world and day-to-day living. At the same time with the physical body of the artist himself. As such he has developed his own training and discipline, as numerous notebooks can show. I hope I’m not being too indiscreet when I tell that he draws while walking – one could even say while running. “If I’m racing through the woods and am completely out of breath, of course I can’t draw fine details anymore – this is physically impossible. My body dictates completely different behavior.” He observes himself during the process and writes down time and mileage in kilometers. “Look, this happened after a 25-kilometre hike.”

These notebooks, full of sketches, ideas and picture titles, serve as a valuable treasure trove and source of inspiration. Some ideas are only taken up after years – that is, when they are ready to be born. The birth can then take a while – sometimes even months and longer. The idea for the picture “The Club of 18- year-old Millionaires” came to him 20 years ago. It was painted shortly before the disclosure of the criminal dealings on Wall Street – and thus gains a prophetic dimension. Franz Konrad is half Styrian and half American. And half Mexican, too – which in this equation adds up to a complete cosmopolitan. So much for his many halves. Here we see that in art anything is possible – even the dissolution of mathematical rules. The studied architect has traveled widely and lived several years in Mexico. He has had close-up experience with various cultures, life-styles and people, not as a tourist but in daily contact. He knows about bitter, heart-wrenching poverty and the guilt and limitless decadence of immense wealth. All these experiences and discrepancies, insights and comparisons affect his art with which he takes an unmistakable stand on the side of all those who are exploited, without rights or hope. The fact that he has not become hardened or bitter, but instead has maintained a basic cheerfulness, is certainly a result of his “basic, natural, inherent” temperament. This infectious cheerfulness spreads to his works and enchants his viewers.

Here in the foyer – as well as on the fourth floor – we can take a look and see for ourselves. By the way, Franz Konrad also has a personal relationship to the Arbeiterkammer. Several years ago, already an artist – for as such one is born – though long not a finished architect but rather a boy still going to school, he often visited the Arbeiterkammer library. They had and still have the good practice of keeping a wish list of books that readers would like to see and read as part of the library collection. The book in question was about Giacometti who the boy was interested in studying. He wrote down his wish – without much hope since the tomb was linen-bound and in his eyes astronomically expensive. Shortly afterwards he received a letter from the Arbeiterkammer: the book has arrived and he may be the first to borrow it. This fine BAZAR D’AK can be considered as a gesture from the half of Franz Konrad from those days. It is his way of saying thank you for having made him happy. And we in turn may thank him today.